A study of the awareness of verb transitivity in the spontaneous speech of two two-year-old native speakers of Quiche was accomplished by examining three factors: transitive terminations given to verbs, subject markers on the verbs, and syntax. The first was studied by counting the number of transitive verbs used with both transitive and intransitive terminations and studying the error patterns. The results indicated an extremely early control of verb transitivity with little of the overgeneralization seen with other forms. The second factor was examined through error patterns in subject agreement, which provided less rich but supporting evidence for early grasp of transitivity. The third factor, syntax, was found to be less easy to assess because of the relative absence of non-focused, non-emphatic noun phrases in Quiche. However, some evidence supporting early acquisition of transitivity was found in the children's utterances. The early acquisition of this awareness is somewhat surprising in light of the relative lack of evidence of transitivity in adult speech in Quiche. (MSE)

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